General Comments:

Look folks, this car is not for the faint of heart or the light-of-pocketbook. It costs a small mint to keep running. The cabriolet ragtop on it takes 10 minutes to put up or down (yes, it's manual), the car fishtails around turns, handles abysmally on wet roads, only does 0 to 60mph in about 6.6 seconds, and is not reliable enough for road trips of over an hour or two.

I've spent about $17,000 on maintenance in the three years since I've bought it. It's now 12 years old.

That said, one does not buy this car for reliability or financial reasons. The reason to buy this car, if you can afford it, is that it's rare (only 1000 Mondial t's were made worldwide), it's a Ferrari, it looks beautiful with the top down and the engine makes beautiful noises.

Driving down the highway in Chicago on a sunny day, I get stares and thumbs up signs from significant numbers of other drivers. This does not happen to Porsche owners, suffice it to say.

13th Aug 2001, 18:15

Hi,

From all the comments I've read, I liked yours, and I don't have a Ferrari, but I dream about it. I have a friend who owns a Ferrari 348 and it's a 'perfect' machine. Yes it's true that sometimes some small problems come, but with money, everything is possible.

I think when we drive a Ferrari, something inside us changes, and it's like a drug, we become dependents of that Italian machine (the engine noise, feeling the vibrations, people looking at us...) and when we drive a Porsche, the sensations don't come to us, it's only a fast car (sports car), German made, nothing more. I drive a small Boxster.